Federal Reserve Terror Plots & Patsies

Title:
Bangladeshi Man Arrested After Allegedly Trying To Blow Up Fed Building In NYCDate: October 17, 2012Source:Fox News

Abstract: Federal authorities arrested a Bangladeshi national
Wednesday morning for allegedly plotting to blow up a Federal Reserve Bank in
New York City's lower Manhattan, mere blocks away from the site of the
terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. The bank is one of 12 branches around the
country.

The 21-year-old
suspect, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, attempted to detonate what he
thought was a 1,000-pound bomb in front of the Fed building on Liberty Street,
but the device was a fake supplied to him by undercover FBI agents who had been
tracking his activity, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force said Wednesday
afternoon.

The supposed
explosives posed no threat to the public, the FBI said.

A criminal complaint
accuses Nafis of having overseas connections to Al Qaeda and travelling to the
U.S. in January to recruit individuals to form a terrorist cell and conduct an
attack on American soil. He came under the guise of going to school in Missouri
on a student visa. One of Nafis' potential recruits was an FBI source, who
alerted authorities, the FBI said.

A federal law
enforcement official told Fox News that there was no evidence Nafis was
directed by Al Qaeda to carry out this attack, though he appears to have
thought he was working for the terrorist group.

At one point,
according to criminal complaint, Nafis told undercover agents: "I don't
want something that's like, small. I just want something big. Something very
big ... that will shake the whole country, that will make America, not one step
ahead, change of policy, and make one step ahead, for the Muslims ... that will
make us one step closer to run the whole world."

A U.S. official told
Fox News that President Obama was Nafis' first target, but the criminal
complaint only refers to "a high-ranking official." The complaint
also mentions the New York Stock Exchange as a proposed target.

The FBI cites a
written statement obtained from Nafis in which he said he wanted to
"destroy America" and determined that the best way to achieve that
goal was to target the economy. He also referenced quotes from "our
beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden."

Nafis appeared in
federal court in Brooklyn to face charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass
destruction and attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda. Wearing a
brown T-shirt and black jeans, he was ordered held without bail and did not
enter a plea. His defense attorney had no comment outside court.

"Attempting to
destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent
bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure," FBI Acting
Assistant Director-in-Charge Galligan said. "The defendant faces
appropriately severe consequences."

NYPD Commissioner
Raymond Kelly noted that there have been 15 terrorist plots targeting the city
since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Al Qaeda
operatives and those they have inspired have tried time and again to make New
York City their killing field," Kelly said. "After 11 years without a
successful attack, it's understandable if the public becomes complacent. But
that's a luxury law enforcement can't afford" (Fox News, 2012).Title: AP:
Suspect In Foiled Fed Bank Plot Considered Obama As Target
Date: October 17, 2012
Source:My Fox Orlando

Abstract: Federal agents and detectives arrested a man who allegedly tried
to blow up a van outside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Wednesday
morning, authorities said.

The man, Quazi
Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, a Bangladeshi national who lives in
Queens, parked a van full of what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb
outside the Fed building on Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan -- just
blocks from the World Trade Center site -- Wednesday morning and set off a cell
phone detonator, according to the Department of Justice.

But the van did not
blow up because the so-called explosives were not real and were provided by an
undercover FBI agent, the DOJ said.

A law enforcement
official says President Barack Obama was also a potential target for
Nafis, reported the Associated Press on Thursday.

The official stressed
that the suspect never got beyond the discussion stage.

The official was not
authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and talked to The
Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Authorities have said
the Bangladeshi man snared in an FBI terror sting also considered targeting the
New York Stock Exchange before picking one of New York City's most fortified
sites.

"Attempting to
destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent
bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure," Acting
Assistant Director Mary Galligan said in a statement. "The defendant faces
appropriately severe consequences. It is important to emphasize that the public
was never at risk in this case, because two of the defendant's 'accomplices'
were actually an FBI source and an FBI undercover agent. The FBI continues to
place the highest priority on preventing acts of terrorism."

The suspect and the
agent had been planning the attack for months, the DOJ said. Agents with the
Joint Terrorism task Force closely monitored Nafis and the plot.

Nafis came to the
United States in January 2012 to recruit people to form a terrorist cell and to
carry out an attack on U.S. soil, the DOJ said. He claimed to have ties to
al-Qaeda and sought out al-Qadea contacts in America to help him plan the
attack, authorities said.

He wrote a statement
that he intended to release after the attack to claim responsibility,
authorities said. In the statement, Nafis wrote that he wanted to "destroy
America" by targeting its economy, the DOJ said. He also quoted from Osama
bin Laden in justifying what he assumed with be the killing of women and
children, federal officials said.

Authorities charged
Nafis with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting
to provide material support to al-Qaeda Authorities said the public was never
in any danger.

Nafis came to the
U.S. on a student visa to study at a college in Missouri, said NYPD
Commissioner Raymond Kelly. He studied at Southeast Missouri State University
from January to May, the AP reported.

"To have someone
come into the country in January, plot this thing going forward and actually
make that chilling step of pressing that cell phone battery to do the
detonation, that's the thing that Americans need to focus on. It's still
there," former NYS Homeland Security Advisor Michael Balboni told Good Day
New York on Thursday (My Fox Orlando, 2012).